The messaging and photo-sharing app Snapchat has reportedly declined an offer from Facebook to purchase the company for about $3 billion in cash, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Unnamed sources familiar with the matter told the Journal that the company’s co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel is optimistic that the app’s growing number of users and message volume would warrant an even higher valuation at a future point in time. Though a company spokesperson refused to comment, the sources said he would probably not consider acquisition offers until early 2014.

Had it been accepted, the $3 billion offer would have made Snapchat Facebook’s largest acquisition to date. The social media giant purchased social network Instagram for about $1 billion in 2012.

While there are many messaging apps on the market, Snapchat is unique in that its messages, which include photos and videos, disappear from recipients’ mobile devices a few seconds after they’ve been opened.

Many spectators were quick to weigh in on the deal that wasn’t on Twitter: